Little Pea, Little Hoot, Little Oink

By Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Jen Corace

Published by Chronicle Books October 2009

Ages: 4-8

Pages: 80 Total (3 Individual books)

The Turkeybird Takes Over: “Let me just take the reigns while Littlebug goes off to chew on some other book. I’m not sure exactly why my parents thought that these books would be more appropriate for Littlebug, but they were wrong. She received them this Christmas and no sooner had she received them did she toss them to the side for a more flashy glowing singing worm thing. In my opinion, she’s made a grievous mistake. These books will soon become classics, as anyone with any taste will obviously see upon their first reading.

“Now, I’m not going to say that Littlebug doesn’t have any good taste (she must, she likes my “That’s Not My Truck” book), it just so happens that in this particular case she has fallen a bit short. In fact, I think she may have fallen asleep.

“But that’s besides the point! These books have everything! From skateboarding to playing with dad to going to school and even cleaning up my room (which believe it or not, I like to do). Just incredible books with wonderful fun friends I’m sure you’ll enjoy. Pea, Hoot and Oink are some of the best characters in modern literature and you would be just silly not to pick these up!”

Mom’s Two Cents: “When the Turkeybird speaks, he speaks. I won’t argue one bit. We judged a book by it’s cover so to say and by so doing gave the wrong book to the wrong child. That’s not to say that Littlebug won’t enjoy these in a year or so from now, because I’m pretty sure she will, she just doesn’t today.

“He’s right though, these are great books! For me as well as for the kids. I honestly LOVE reading these aloud to The Turkeybird. They’re so fun and entertaining, but also have a twist of teaching to them. Each book focuses on a different point of a child’s life of learning, be it sleeping, what to eat or cleaning up. Each one is taught in such a way that it makes each task seem like the enjoyable part of the day and not the chore to be completed. The illustrations are simple and beautiful. And overall wonderful books, great for the whole family. (I think I’d even read them without children.)”

The1stdaughter Recommends: Age 3 and older, boys and girls alike will love these delightful stories.

“If you’re still thirsty for more take a look at this adorable book trailer for the third book in the series Little Oink”:

These books were purchased for our home library.
Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post will provide us a modest commission through our affiliate relationship with Amazon.com.

Yes, I know I tricked you all…tomorrow morning very early (well, early for me anyways 5 am) The American Library Association will be announcing this years Newbery Winner. It’s a very exciting time and you can even watch it live via the internet. I have my favorite, which I’ve already reviewed, but we’ll see if Rebecca Stead can pull it off!

Well, onto today’s topic, Lois Lowry. She is a two time Newbery Award winner. A feat which has only been accomplished by a total of five authors. Lowry originally won the Newbery for her work, Number the Stars in 1990. After receiving the award in 1990 she won it again for her novel The Giver.

Lowry is quoted on her website as saying, ” ‘The most distinguished contribution to American Literature for Children’ is what it says on the medal itself. Imagine how the author feels to have a book described like that! When the Committee called me in 1990 to tell me that Number the Stars had been awarded the medal, they found me at my desk, where I usually am. But in 1994, they couldn’t find me. I was in Antarctica! Eventually they reached me by sending a radiogram. So I was feeling on top of the world, though, technically speaking, I was actually at the bottom.”

Her contribution to children’s literature is astounding and I would go as far as saying she was one of the first authors to begin a venture into dystopian fiction. Although The Giver is not technically a dystopian novel, it has the beginnings of the thought process in so many of today’s popular young adult novels. And may very well be most readers first exposure to the genre.

As for The Giver itself, I highly recommend it. The main story revolves around the life of a young boy, Jonas, and the choice that is made for his life long career. How the decision is made and everything that follows after it changes not only him, but the “perfect” community in which he lives. It shows how one individual can have a lasting impact on an entire group of people just by the choices they make. Inspirational and one I would recommend even to young readers. Although, I will add that there are some very visual images that may be disturbing to someone very young, but well worth it, especially if they have a parent ready to discuss it with them.

The1stdaughter Recommends: Age 11 and up.

Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post will provide us a modest commission through our affiliate relationship with Amazon.com.

Have a review of The Giver and/or other Lois Lowry titles? I’d love to read them! Link them up here:

Yes, I know, “wonderfulness” is not a word, oh well! I have to say I feel like I’ve climbed a mountain with a mariachi band in tow. It was a blast and I feel like I was able to accomplish more than I ever thought I would. Whew!

Here’s the short list:

• Hours Spent: 26
• Mini-challenges completed: 14
• Comments Left: 50+ (I think it was more, but I stopped keeping track.)
• Favorite Part: Feeling of accomplishing SO much!
• Least Favorite: Not taking enough time to write.

My long list of all I did:

• Pam’s mini-challenge on copyrighting.
• My favicon IS working! That’s was over at Trish’s site for those of you interested.
• Finished my Google Reader with Rebecca’s mini-challenge on how to get things under control. And boy did it help! My GR is amazing now!
• Over at Farm Lane Books Blog Jackie is hosting a super-easy mini-challenge that will be a life saver in the event you lose your blog sometime. I did it in a matter of seconds, honestly, it took longer to write the follow-up comment. Check it out and back up your blog!
• Great way to get your site organized: Label and categorize your posts! Check out Beth’s post at Beth Fish Read’s and start labeling. I was lucky enough to start doing this from the get go and man does it make a difference!
• Checked out my deadlinks with Karin at Karin’s Book Nook. Great reference material for future use as well!
• Jill’s comment challenge coincided nicely with Mother Reader’s and I was able to complete that as well. I’ve actually commented on well-over 20 new blogs and more than 50 total this weekend.
• Got listed at Kidlitosphere! Wohoo! Thanks to this little challenge at The Infant Bibliophile. And set up my button!
• Set up my Google Alerts thanks to Emily at Emily’s Reading Room!
• Completed the Anchors Away mini-challenge at GalleySmith’s site and know it’s been helping, my site is actually showing up in a Google Search now!
• Had my site graded and only received a 78…again. I’m thinking I’ll work on this for next Bloggiesta again. Thanks though Bookish Ruth!
• The Comment Challenge hosted by Mother Reader this has been really fun! I plan on keeping it up past Bloggiesta through the end of her challenge.
• Set up a few more feature spotlights. I’ve actually set up an extra months worth so far, but I’d really like to have more. If you’re interested in participating just let me know!
• Set up an RSS email feed option as well as added some new pretty buttons for them.
• I’m set up and ready to go in Kristen’s blogging mentor program.
• Made my blogging buddies “official”, learned all about that from Amy!
• Fixed my contact page. I think. If you notice any problems try and let me know, I’d really appreciate it!
• Chatted with tons of great new friends in Twitter land!

What I didn’t get done and am still going to be working on:

• Believe it or not, I did not finish my own cheat sheet! I did get a lot of it put together, but I still need to do some tweaking.
• Jenn had a great post all about creating 10 Post ideas that I wanted to take advantage of. Alas, I will be working on this one as time goes forward.
• Write at least this weeks worth of posts. This means I will be up typing away this week, but that’s probably okay since The Baker is still studying away for his Bar Exam.
• Update Goodreads, Glue, and Amazon with reviews.
• Clean up my archive page.

All in all I feel really great about all I was able to accomplish. I can always write more and that’s the large majority of what I didn’t get to. The technical stuff I’m really happy about and it was great to have such wonderful resources available to get through it all, as well as everyone on Twitter. Next time around I think I’d like to see more about what I didn’t do great on: writing, more on grading your website and how to improve visibility. I also think it might be fun to have a challenge to see how many review we can get transfered to sites like amazon, glue, goodreads, etc. It was all great though!

Thanks again to Natasha at Maw Books Blog for organizing Bloggiesta, getting all the mini-challenges together and gathering all the wonderful prizes that will be awarded. It’s been a fabulous weekend and I’m looking forward to it again in June!

Here it is, Day 3, wow! This really has been a whirlwind of a great adventure! Let’s start off with all the fabulous things I’ve been able to accomplish:

• Pam’s mini-challenge on copyrighting.
• Make sure my favicon keeps working, it comes and goes like it’s visiting other sites or something. That’s at Trish’s site for those of you interested.
• Finish my Google Reader with Rebecca’s mini-challenge on how to get things under control. That’s the first thing to get going! Yay! I did it!
• Over at Farm Lane Books Blog Jackie is hosting a super-easy mini-challenge that will be a life saver in the event you lose your blog sometime. I did it in a matter of seconds, honestly, it took longer to write the follow-up comment. Check it out and back up your blog!
• Great way to get your site organized: Label and categorize your posts! Check out Beth’s post at Beth Fish Read’s and start labeling. I was lucky enough to start doing this from the get go and man does it make a difference!
• Checked out my deadlinks with Karin at Karin’s Book Nook. Great reference material for future use as well!
• Okay, so I just keep adding and adding, but Jill’s comment challenge coincided nicely with Mother Reader’s and I was able to complete that as well.
• Got listed at Kidlitosphere! Wohoo! Thanks to this little challenge at The Infant Bibliophile.
• Set up my Google Alerts thanks to Emily at Emily’s Reading Room!
• Completed the Anchors Away mini-challenge at GalleySmith’s site and know it’s been helping, my site is actually showing up in a Google Search now!
• Had my site graded and only received a 78…again. I’m thinking I’ll work on this for next Bloggiesta again. Thanks though Bookish Ruth!

What I want to accomplish today:

• Keep going with the Comment Challenge hosted by Mother Reader, yesterday I made about 20 comments at all new sites I’d never commented at before and I’d like to keep that up. It has been really fun!
• Set up a few more feature spotlights. I’ve actually set up a few so far, but I’d really like to have more. If you’re interested in participating just let me know!
• Write at least this weeks worth of posts.
• Jenn has a great post all about creating 10 Post ideas that I’m going to take advantage of!
• Set up my Kidlitosphere button! I just found out today that I’ve been added to the site, which also helps to knock off another challenge!
• Believe it or not, I need to work on my own cheat sheet and get a little more organized that way!
• I’m really interested in Kristen’s blogging mentor program.
• I need to make my blogging buddies “official”, learn more from Amy! Done! Wohoo!
• Clean up my archive page.

Wow! That’s a lot to do today, but I think I can manage to get quite a lot of it done. If not, I’ll just keep going through the week. Thanks again to Natasha at Maw Books for organizing this event, it has been fabulous!

On a side note, I’d like to mention that Kristen over at Bookworming in the 21st Century is featuring yours truly! If you have a minute, take a look!

Well, here goes day two of Bloggiesta! Day one was fabulous even if I feel like I spent most of the day on cleaning out my Google Reader (and it’s still not done, almost). Hopefully today I’ll be able to accomplish quite a bit since I have no kiddos to keep track of for the most part. I do have to make a quick run to the library and to the store, but the rest of the day will be spent with my eyes glued to the screen. Here’s what’s on the agenda for today:

• Keep going with the Comment Challenge hosted by Mother Reader, yesterday I made about 20 comments at all new sites I’d never commented at before and I’d like to keep that up. It was really fun!
• Pam’s mini-challenge on copyrighting.
• Jenn has a great post all about creating 10 Post ideas that I’m going to take advantage of!
• Make sure my favicon keeps working, it comes and goes like it’s visiting other sites or something. That’s at Trish’s site for those of you interested.
• Finish my Google Reader with Rebecca’s mini-challenge on how to get things under control. That’s the first thing to get going! Yay! I did it!
• Set up a few more feature spotlights. If you’re interested in participating just let me know!
• Write at least this weeks worth of posts.
• If I get done with that I’ll refer to my first day’s list and go from there.

Just Added:

• Over at Farm Lane Books Blog Jackie is hosting a super-easy mini-challenge that will be a life saver in the event you lose your blog sometime. I did it in a matter of seconds, honestly, it took longer to write the follow-up comment. Check it out and back up your blog!
• Great way to get your site organized: Label and categorize your posts! Check out Beth’s post at Beth Fish Read’s and start labeling. I was lucky enough to start doing this from the get go and man does it make a difference!
• Checked out my deadlinks with Karin at Karin’s Book Nook. Great reference material for future use as well!
• Okay, so I just keep adding and adding, but Jill’s comment challenge coincided nicely with Mother Reader’s and I was able to complete that as well.

Good luck to everyone participating and I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around! If you haven’t signed up, it’s not too late, go do it!

So, here it is! Bloggiesta! Wohoo! I have a long list of what I want to accomplish and a pretty free weekend ever since I informed The Baker of my voluntary exile behind a computer screen for the duration. First things first, mini-challenges. There are so many, including the one I am hosting that you definitely need to check out if you are at all interested in saving time. I don’t think I will be able to get to them all, but here are a few I’m really looking forward to sinking my teeth into:

• I’m already in for the Comment Challenge hosted by Mother Reader, I just need to sign up on Mr.Linky.
• Believe it or not, I need to work on my own cheat sheet and get a little more organized that way!
• Definitely going to check out Pam’s mini-challenge on copyrighting, I’ve already seen some of my images and words dragged places I don’t want them.
• I’m really interested in Kristen’s blogging mentor program.
• Even if my site is relatively new I really don’t want to lose any of it. I’ve never had this problem with past blogs, but I’ve never used WordPress before so who’s to say it can’t happen? So, I’m heading over to Jackie’s post on backing up your blog at some point.
• And who doesn’t need an excuse to have posts saved for a rainy day? Jenn has a great post all about creating 10 Post ideas that I’m going to take advantage of!
• Done!!! YAY! I highly recommend doing this, so easy: I’ve really, and I mean really got to figure out my favicon thingy. It’s all added but for some reason, not working. So, that’s on the list over at Trish’s site.
• I need to make my blogging buddies “official”, learn more from Amy!
• Listed a few places, but could probably use some more. This is where The Infant Bibliophile comes in..
• Boy do I need to clean up my feedreader! Rebecca has got an excellent post on how to get things under control and I’m going to take full advantage of it.

That’s the list from all the places I plan to go this weekend, it may be more I just have to see how much I can get done. Here’s the list I want to accomplish all on my own:

• Get my business cards set up and ordered.
• Manage and set up all the reading challenges I plan on doing this year.
• Set up a few more features I want to have lined up and ready to go.
• Write at least 5 review posts.
• Clean up my archive page.

Those are just a few things, but I’m already getting worried so I think I’ll stop there for now. If I get it all done, maybe I’ll treat myself to a new book! Either way I think this is going to be a great weekend and one where I will be able to accomplish A LOT! I’m loving Bloggiesta and if you haven’t signed up, it’s not too late, go do it!